Chase Employees Game The System, Too!

I had an interesting conversation with a Chase bank employee that threw me for a loop. I have a Chase bank branch that I’ve been using since the old days when it was a Washington Mutual. I know many of the employees there, and from time to time we chat about all things Chase. Last year Southwest Airlines had a special promotion, if you lived in California, giving its companion pass as a bonus when you got the Chase Southwest credit card. Quite a deal!

I jumped on the promotion, as did a few of the Chase bank employees at my branch. One employee in particular was just as excited about it as I was. We talked about all the places we wanted to go with our bonus miles and companion pass.

Fast forward to the other day.

I needed some paperwork, so I went inside the branch and happened to see two employees I knew talking with each other. One of them was the woman who got the SWA Chase card the same time I did. I asked her where she had gone recently using her SWA Chase card.

She replied, “I let it go.” Then she disappeared to the back room to get my paperwork.

Wait a minute. She let it go. What did that mean? And why had she done that?

When she came back I said, “What do you mean you let it go?” She told me she canceled the card. Her exact words were……..

“I’ve had it a year and I don’t want to pay the annual fee.”

The other Chase employee who was still standing with us said with a laugh, “She’s gaming the system.” She nodded her head, smiled and agreed.

Doesn’t Chase mind if their employees get and, then after the first year, cancel Chase credit cards?

Don’t Chase employees worry about what Chase will think when they do this?

Maybe I’m naive but Chase employees gaming the system just surprised me. I couldn’t fathom this conversation. I’ve been led to believe that only we overly zealous miles and points people get cards, collect the bonuses and benefits, ruin all the good deals, and then cancel the cards when the annual fee comes due.

Maybe I’m wrong, but isn’t this what the media says?

The strange part is that I’m NOT canceling my card and letting it go. I did, however, need to write about this because I wanted to know if anyone else has had conversations about credit cards with bank employees that have surprised them as much as this one did me??

Wow, you’ve done everything but out her with name and with a pic. While you didn’t reveal the actual name of your source, you provided enough info (Chase employee, female, works at Chase/WaMu bank branch that is home for Shelli Stein, signed up for and cancelled the SWA card in less than one year, etc.) that a Chase manager with system privileges could probably find them with minimal effort. It’s true she did nothing illegal, but still, you could have omitted some of that info so as to make ID’ing them more difficult. Thankfully, you’re not a journalist trying to protect a deep throat source in Washington D.C. or a foreign capital, or they would’ve just gotten burned.

I would not worry for a second that some unnamed higher up at Chase is going to take the time to find Shelli’s address, then look up all the former WaMus in the extended area, then check (possibly illegally, depending on the labor laws of the state) every female employee’s credit report to see who has cancelled a SWA Chase card, then discipline said employee.

However, I would say this anecdote is a perfect example of the old saying in travel hacking: “this is why we cannot have nice things.”